Read the full article by Scott Bauer (WRAL News)
“MADISON, WIS. — Wisconsin’s natural resources board on Wednesday voted unanimously to proceed with regulating so-called forever chemicals in the state’s groundwater, 10 months after a plan was scrapped under pressure from the state’s powerful business industry.
The vote to move ahead with developing limits on four types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, more commonly known as PFAS chemicals, came after the board in February adopted standards for surface and drinking water. Those went into effect in June.
Environmental groups and residents affected by PFAS contamination spoke Wednesday in favor of moving ahead with adopting the standards. No one spoke against it.
‘We have been living on bottled water for drinking and cooking for five years now,’ said Jeffrey LaMont, who lives in a contaminated area in Peshtigo and represents a group called Save Our H2O.
Groundwater is the source of drinking water for about two-thirds of Wisconsin residents. The regulations would pertain to private water wells.
The rule would provide a marker to determine whether the water is safe or not to prevent further pollution, but would not actually fix the problem, members of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources board said.
‘We may be overselling this a little bit, that this is the solution to the whole problem,’ said board chairman Greg Kazmierski. ‘I don’t believe this rule is and I don’t want the public to move away with that assumption.’
The board killed proposed PFAS limits in groundwater in February amid concerns about the cost to paper mills and other businesses, wastewater plants and others for drilling new wells and installing treatment systems.
Revisiting the issue nearly a year later, the Natural Resources Board on Wednesday voted to proceed with the groundwater standards. The vote allows the department to propose a standard, which would then go through a process that could take two years or more to gather feedback and make changes before adoption.” …